This invention relates to a telephone system having a plurality of administrators of switching system resources. More particularly, this invention relates to a computer system network connected to a switching system via a server to provide access to swithing system resources by the administrators. Still more particularly, this invention relates to software applications and databases maintained by the server to partition switching system resources between the administrators and to prevent unauthorized access of the switching system resources. This invention also relates, to software applications executed by the server computer-that allow unused switching system resources to be dynamically allocatcd to administrators to meet administrator demands for additional resources- during peak calling times.
It is a problem to allow multiple administrators to control switching system resources. For the purposes of the present discussion, switching system resources include telephone lines, trunks, and other systems of a switching system used to provide telephone service to subscribers connected to the switching system. One problem with allowing multiple administrators to control switching system resources is the ability to prevent an administrator from controlling resources that are under the control of other administrators. Switching systems typically do not provide a system for partitioning the resources to prevent administrators from controlling resources in the switching system that are not partitioned to the administrator.
The lack of an ability to allow multiple administrators to control resources has become a particular problem as more administrative accesses of switching systems resources are needed to provide telephone service in today""s society. One reason that more administrative accesses are needed is computer telephony which is the transmitting of digital computer data over the telephone network. In computer telephone, administrative accesses increase because computer telephony requires that a subscriber have an ability to start, stop, and restart links into the switching system. Each of these functions requires an administrative access of the switching system. In current switching systems, an administrative access can only be executed by the owner of the switching system. This places a great administrative burden on the owner of the switching system to provide these accesses for all of the subscribers connected to the switching system.
It is common for an owner of the switching system to sell or lease resources in the switching system to service resellers, who in turn, sell or lease the resources to subscribers. However, there is currently no effective method of passing the burden of providing the administrative accesses onto the service resellers. The owner of the switching system must still provide all of the administrative accesses. Owners of switching systems desire a process for passing the burden of administrative accesses along to the service resellers when resources are sold or leased to the resellers. As stated above, one problem with allowing the service resellers to provide administrative accesses is the ability to limit the access of a service provider to only the resources owned by the service reseller.
It is also a problem that service resellers must be given enough resources to satisfy the demands of the subscribers during peak calling times. Peak calling times are periods when a subscriber or service reseller need extra resources to handle an increase in the number of calls to a subscriber or subscribers. In order to meet the resource demands during a peak calling period, a service reseller will typically buy a surplus of resources. All resources controlled by a service reseller may not be used on a regular basis. A certain percentage of resources may only be used during peak calling times for the subscribers of the service reseller. The peak calling times may be different for the subscribers and different resellers. Resources could be reused by different resellers if there were a method for dynamically allocating the resources. It is desirable to develop a system for allocating excess resources during period of low demands by a service resellers to make more efficient use of the switching system resources.
There is a need for a system that would allow the owner of a switching system to allow each service reseller to configure the resources controlled by the reseller on the switching system and to shift the burden of administrative accesses to the service resellers. There is also a need for efficient allocation of switching system resources to meet the demands of subscribers.
The above and other problems are solved and an advance in the art is made by providing a system for allowing multiple administrators to control resources of a switching system. One advantage of allowing multiple administrators to control the resources is that the burden of doing the Operation, Administrative, and Maintenance functions (OAandM functions) on the switching system can be transferred from the owner of the switching systems to each administrator that control the resources. A second advantage is that each administrator may subdivide the resources controlled by the administrator to allow sub-administrators to control their allocated resources. A third advantage is that resources not being used by an administrator may be placed into a common pool of unused resources and provided to other administrators on a demand basis. A fourth advantage of the present invention is that one server computer can be used to control multiple switching systems and the actual location of resources on different switching systems could be hidden from an administrator controlling the resources.
In order to allow multiple administrators access to switching systems in a telephone system, a server computer is communicatively connected to a controler of each switching system. Software applications executed by the server computer allow the server computer to transmit data in a form that can be understood by the controller of the switching system. Since there are several different types of switching systems, the server computer must have a different software application for communicating with each different type of switching system connected to the server.
The server computer is also connected to a plurality of work station computers. Administrators use the work station computers to transmit OAandM commands to the server computer. When the server computer receives an OAandM command from an administrator via a work station computer, software applications executed by the server computer read an administrator data record from an administrator database. The software applications then compare a password in the command received from the administrator with a password in the administrator data record to determine if the command is from the identified administrator. The software applications also use the administrator data record to determine if the administrator is authorized to perform the requested command and to determine which resources are partitioned to the administrator. This prevents the administrator from performing OAandM commands on resources that are not partitioned to the administrator.
Since the server computer is maintaining a record of all the resources in the switching systems, it is also possible to maintain a common pool of unused resources. The common pool of unused resources contains the resources in each administrator partition that are not frequently used by the administrator for providing telephone service to subscribers. The resources in the pool can then be allocated to other administrators on a demand basis to meet resource demands during peak demand times for a particular business or application. For example, an administrator may normally use five trunks to provide phone service to subscriber lines controlled by the administrator. However, the administrator may need 10 trunks during a peak calling time in order to provide telephone service to all of the administrators""s subscribers. It is possible to allow the administrator to request the additional trunks from the common pool of unused resources. This allocates the resources of other administrators whose subscribers have different peak calling times and allows for a more efficient use of switching system resources to assure that administrators can meet the resource demand of their subscribers.
In order to perform the functions of allowing multiple administrators to control switching system resources and maintaining a pool of unused resources, the server computer must maintain an administrator database, a resource database, and a switching system database. The administrator database includes administrator data records that include the resources partitioned to an administrator, the OAandM functions that the administrator is allowed to perform, and the resources in the partition that can be included in the pool of unused resources. The administrator database is used by software applications executed by the server computer to verify messages from administrators and to prevent administrators from performing OAandM functions on resources that are not partitioned to the administrator. In order to allocate resources from the common pool of unused resources, the administrator database is also read to determine if the administrator currently has unused resources in the pool that can be used to satisfy the request.
The resource database is a database that stores data records for each resource. Each data record in the resource database includes a resource identity, the switching system containing the resource, a field indicating that the resource is a resource dedicated to an administrator, a field indicating that the resource is in the pool of unused resources, and a field indicating whether a resource is currently allocated to an administrator from the pool of unused resources. The records in the resource database are used by software applications executed by the server computer to determine the availability of a resource for use and to determine Which switching system contains the resource in order to generate an OAandM function command for that switching system.
The switching system database is a database that stores information about every switching system connected to a server. The switching system database is used by the software applications executed by the server to determine the type of switching system containing a resource and whether a switching system has resources available to satisfy a request for additional resources from an administrator. Each record in the switching system database includes the identification of the switching system, the type of switching system, the resources contained in the switching system and the resources in available in the unused pool of the switching system.